“For business, the most important postelection question is simple: Will there be corporate-tax reform or not?” Dennis K. Berman reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Top lawmakers in Washington are talking about a nine-month ‘window’ to make a deal. The nine months is a political marker, the interval in which both sides might have at least some repose before the tumult of the 2016 election begins.”

“Listen to the words of Paul Ryan, who just might be the future chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee: ‘If I could make just one change in Washington, it would be to fix the tax code,'” Berman reports. “Republicans are attached to ‘comprehensive tax reform’ which typically means overhauling much of the approach to personal taxes, including those for small business. For Democrats this amounts to tax cuts for the wealthy, a nonstarter. Expect Democrats to be focused on the ever-divisive question of ‘territoriality,’ another way of saying that overseas profits are taxed in their country of origin, not by the U.S.”

“Chief executives have been consistently pressing for change, especially in light of the corporate ‘inversions’ that are relocating U.S. companies—and their tax dollars—abroad,” Berman reports. “They rightfully point out that inversions are a symptom, not a cause, of a system that encourages overseas profits never to make their way back home.”

Under the current U.S. corporate tax system, it would be very expensive to repatriate that cash. Unfortunately, the tax code has not kept up with the digital age. The tax system handicaps American corporations in relation to our foreign competitors who don’t have such constraints on the free flow of capital… Apple has always believed in the simple, not the complex. You can see it in our products and the way we conduct ourselves. It is in this spirit that we recommend a dramatic simplification of the corporate tax code. This reform should be revenue neutral, eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, lower corporate income tax rates and implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows the free flow of capital back to the U.S. We make this recommendation with our eyes wide open, realizing this would likely increase Apple’s U.S. taxes. But we strongly believe such comprehensive reform would be fair to all taxpayers, would keep America globally competitive and would promote U.S. economic growth. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, May 21, 2013

Berman reports, “The odds of tax reform could well increase if the Republicans take the Senate. ‘That moves the game from whether Congress could produce a unified proposal to whether Congress and the president are interested in striking a bargain,’ says Linda Swartz, who chairs the tax group at law firm Cadwalader. ‘I suspect the president is, and the Senate is. I’m less certain whether the Senate can deliver the House.'”

WOW, just all this WOW with the republicans controlling Congress. I totally expect we will see nirvana in this country in the next 2months, 3 months tops.
The republicans have made so many wonderful promises backed by big money from billionaires, that everything will be wonderful in this country and in the world by years end. They told us so.

I am also expecting Microsoft to suddenly change course and sell BILLIONS of Surface Pros with windows 10 by say Feb 1, cause big business should be what prospers in this country. After all they said it would sell great.

I am just so excited by all this wonderful opportunity for people to get rich, but….. all you poor people.. you should just leave. PERIOD. We have no need in this country for you. NO hand outs or hand ups, just make your millions and join the club or leave. In fact we should just dump the whole Obama care – medicare – social security thing as a waste of time. If you did not make your millions to retire on, you should either die or leave . Cause.. rich republicans rule.

Americans have entrusted Republicans with control of both the House and Senate. We are humbled by this opportunity to help struggling middle-class Americans who are clearly frustrated by an increasing lack of opportunity, the stagnation of wages, and a government that seems incapable of performing even basic tasks.

Looking ahead to the next Congress, we will honor the voters’ trust by focusing, first, on jobs and the economy. Among other things, that means a renewed effort to debate and vote on the many bills that passed the Republican-led House in recent years with bipartisan support, but were never even brought to a vote by the Democratic Senate majority. It also means renewing our commitment to repeal ObamaCare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans’ health care.

For years, the House did its job and produced a steady stream of bills that would remove barriers to job creation and lower energy costs for families. Many passed with bipartisan support—only to gather dust in a Democratic-controlled Senate that kept them from ever reaching the president’s desk. Senate Republicans also offered legislation that was denied consideration despite bipartisan support and benefits for American families and jobs.

These bills provide an obvious and potentially bipartisan starting point for the new Congress—and, for President Obama , a chance to begin the final years of his presidency by taking some steps toward a stronger economy.

These bills include measures authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which will mean lower energy costs for families and more jobs for American workers; the Hire More Heroes Act, legislation encouraging employers to hire more of our nation’s veterans; and a proposal to restore the traditional 40-hour definition of full-time employment, removing an arbitrary and destructive government barrier to more hours and better pay created by the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

We’ll also consider legislation to help protect and expand America’s emerging energy boom and to support innovative charter schools around the country.

Enacting such measures early in the new session will signal that the logjam in Washington has been broken, and help to establish a foundation of certainty and stability that both parties can build upon.

At a time of growing anxiety for the American people, with household incomes stubbornly flat and the nation facing rising threats on multiple fronts, this is vital work.

Will these bills single-handedly turn around the economy? No. But taking up bipartisan bills aimed at helping the economy that have already passed the House is a sensible and obvious first step.

More good ideas aimed at helping the American middle class will follow. And as we work to persuade others of their merit, we won’t repeat the mistakes made when a different majority ran Congress in the first years of Barack Obama’s presidency, attempting to reshape large chunks of the nation’s economy with massive bills that few Americans have read and fewer understand.

Instead, we will restore an era in which committees in both the House and Senate conduct meaningful oversight of federal agencies and develop and debate legislation; and where members of the minority party in both chambers are given the opportunity to participate in the process of governing.

We will oversee a legislature in which “bigger” isn’t automatically equated with “better” when it comes to writing and passing bills.

Our priorities in the 114th Congress will be your priorities. That means addressing head-on many of the most pressing challenges facing the country, including:

• The insanely complex tax code that is driving American jobs overseas;

• Health costs that continue to rise under a hopelessly flawed law that Americans have never supported;

• A savage global terrorist threat that seeks to wage war on every American;

• An education system that denies choice to parents and denies a good education to too many children;

• Excessive regulations and frivolous lawsuits that are driving up costs for families and preventing the economy from growing;

• An antiquated government bureaucracy ill-equipped to serve a citizenry facing 21st-century challenges, from disease control to caring for veterans;

• A national debt that has Americans stealing from their children and grandchildren, robbing them of benefits that they will never see and leaving them with burdens that will be nearly impossible to repay.

January will bring the opportunity to begin anew. Republicans will return the focus to the issues at the top of your priority list. Your concerns will be our concerns. That’s our pledge.

The skeptics say nothing will be accomplished in the next two years. As elected servants of the people, we will make it our job to prove the skeptics wrong.

Tax reform doesn’t have to be something to benefit special interests (though let’s be honest, many of our tax laws do just that). But tax reform is needed to keep U.S. corporations competitive globally and to keep multi-national U.S. corporations (like Apple) from being dis-incentivized from bringing profits back to the U.S.

Then there is also the personal tax code and small business tax codes. These have languished for years, being basically hacked and patched from year to year until even CPAs and the IRS don’t really know what to do. It needs to be simplified, and a good proposal from either party could get it done.

But then there’s President Obama. You can bet that any legislation passed by Congress, whether all GOP or bipartisan, will be vetoed by him. He’ll try to govern with executive orders; he’s already planning more of it for immigration. Now it’s Obama’s turn to be the obstructor (some would argue he already is based on his poor proposals, like his budgets that even his own party vetoed unanimously).

I would like to actually *see* some tax legislation passed by Congress and sent to the President’s desk. Only then will we know what he will do. Meanwhile, Congress has accomplished nothing.

Why are you conjuring up a fantasy of Obama obstructing non-existent tax legislation?

We have discussed tax reform on this forum many times in the past. I have long advocated tax reform – personal and business – to simplify the system and eliminate those rewarding special interest loopholes. However, I maintain that in order to be practical, tax reform must be structured to generate a level of revenue that generally balances the budget. The general public will only get serious about cutting government spending when they are fully paying the cost of existing government services. Until there is pain, there will be no gain and the borrowing will continue.

We have experimented with tax and spend – it did not work. We have experimented with tax cut and spend – it did not work, either. There is no magic recipe for spending too much, borrowing too much, and then trying to avoid the hangover of the bill that is long overdue.

All spending needs to be on the table for debate – no sacred cows such as defense or social programs – everything.

So why do you support the party that has historically spent the most? Overseas wars, Star Wars, Wars on Drugs, and unending global wars on guerrilla tactics (terrorism) all cost a lot of money, you know. Both political parties are corrupt to the core, but one party has a habit of blowing its wad on wars. That’s just stupid.

GoeB

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 9:56 pm ·

I typically resist responding to vague, clumped together tunnel view assertions with zero verifiable facts to back up unsupported accusations.

But in your case, i’ll make an exception.

Tell me how much the deficit was when your hero was sworn in and what it is now. I guess Bush drove the debt to record heights the last six years, right?

Tell him how much the stimulus package spending got the country moving on the right track and how long it lowered unemployment under five percent.

Tell me the president that set the poverty record. The welfare record. The record number of Americans not paying income tax. The record number of Americans out of work no longer looking for work.

Tell me how much your hero has spent on wars, drones, bombs, etc. since taking office in 2009. Zero, right?

Reminds me of the old saw, there are liars, damn liars and statisticians.

If you believe this selective half-truth of dubious unverifiable statistics written by a biased writer, well, it is what it is …

Mike

Monday, November 10, 2014 - 12:06 pm ·

@ Goeb: In other words, no matter what anyone brought to the table, you would stick your fingers in your ears and scream because you don’t care to learn the facts, you already have formed your own INCORRECT opinion. I feel sorry for the nation that there are so many people like you who can’t readjust their stupid opinions when the facts are right there, plain as day.

Just bring back the lower rate of long term capital gains taxes and I’ll be happy. A few years ago AAPL had just a little bit more to go and I could build that log home I always wanted, but the rates increased before it got there. Then AAPL fell and I had to wait until it climbed even higher than my original target (not to mention the cost of that house has gone up too). At the present tax rate, I need APPL to hit 115 to 120. If it were what it used to be, I could do it right now and have some left over. (And no, I didn’t vote for Obama.)

How soon you forget your “shellackings.” I had a HUGE blowout party in 2010, too!

In 2010, the Grand Old Party gained 63 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, recapturing the majority, and making it the largest seat change since 1948 and the largest for any midterm election since the 1938 midterm elections. The Republicans gained six seats in the U.S. Senate and also gained 680 seats in state legislative races to break the previous majority record of 628 set by Democrats in 1974.

2010 wasn’t that long ago, and I remember the papers were reporting that the Republicans haven’t gained as much as they could have, considering the public discontent with the economy.

The same comments may be said for this election, where it seems that some of the contests still went to Democrats, where they were expected to go the other way.

Be it as it may, it looks like you’re now ready to officially change the name one more time, having checked that 2014 finally. Let us not forget all those names of the past:

First 2008 then 2010
First 2010 then 2012
First 2012 then 2014…

Well, it took a little longer to get that “First” done, but I’m sure your joy is in no way diminished by the statistical reality that the mid-term elections during the second term of the sitting president have literally always heavily gone to the opposing party, so regardless of the current state of the American nation, the vote had to go to the Republicans, if history is any guide.

What is he going to do when Hillary Clinton gets elected in 2016, pop an aneurysm? Can’t stand her personally, but she polls very well -even with Republicans.

First 2014, Then 2016

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 10:40 am ·

Hillary is not going to happen, but I grant you that, without huge numbers of undocumented low- or no-information “voters,” the Democrat party has proven it cannot win elections. The proof was displayed again, with a more educated, politically astute midterm electorate composed mainly of American citizens. Further, the GOP ground game has now finally been fixed. Good luck in 2016, you’re going to need it.

In my state we do not have to declare party and I am not happy with either major Party as I see them as both heavily beholden to interests not aligned with the wishes of the American people or the best interests of our nation.

They both market fear to their base while serving other interests. Today’s Republicans would not welcome Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower or Gerald Ford and would barely tolerate Ronald Reagan. Today’s Democrats would not welcome Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Harry Truman, JFK or many others. Both have plenty to be ashamed of and little to recommend them.

One can be pro-consumer and pro-environment while NOT being anti-business. One can want a strong national defense without wanting us to maintain an empire of foreign bases to enable us to meddle in other countries business. One can support entrepreneurs without embracing Economic Darwinism. One can support social welfare without supporting a welfare state.

Sadly, our system wants to corral 300+ Million Americans into one of two boxes. I wish our new Congress well, but expect very little good to come from them. I expect a lot of payback to the paymasters that own them.

Wrong Again

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 11:33 am ·

Composed mainly of American citizens? That’s every election! 🙂

U.S. Voter

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 12:27 pm ·

So you seem to think, but without voter ID laws and with Oblahblah letting every disease-ridden third-worlder waltz right in, ignoring US law and endangering US citizens in order to try to amass DEM votes, you’d be wrong. Dead wrong.

You have a skewed perspective, Fwhatever. Your disdain for anyone who differs with your viewpoint is instructive, as is your admiration for the allegedly “more educated, politically astute” voters. I live in the midst of a horde of voters, many of them currently Republican, and their credentials in terms of education and, especially, political astuteness varies wildly.

Based on the results, your party failed in 2008. Your party succeeded just enough to obstruct and create gridlock in Congress in 2010. Your party failed in 2012. And your party had some moderate success in the 2014 midterms, enough to claim control of the Senate. Well, now that you have control, you get the blame. Do something good with that power or your success will be very short-lived.

Duh. You don’t seem to understand politics at all. Of course, “some of the contests still went to Democrats.”

What you just witnessed was a political tsunami. The GOP retained every one of their GOP-held seats and picked up more than the six seats needed to take control of the Senate. Republicans also projected to retain control of the House — and gain at least 12 seats, expanding their majority beyond their post-World War II record of 246 seats set in 1946.

Obama’s home state of Illinois elected a Republican governor on Tuesday night. Massachusetts will have its first Republican governor since Mitt Romney. Republican gubernatorial victories came in reliably Democratic states. Illinois ousted Democrat Pat Quinn in favor of Republican Bruce Rauner, while Maryland voters opted for Republican Larry Hogan over Democrat Anthony Brown. Republican Charlie Baker won a Massachusetts match-up against Martha Coakley. Republican Rick Scott defeated Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist in Florida’s very tight and hotly contested race. Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Georgia’s Nathan Deal both re-elected. Walker for the 3rd time in 4 years. Ohio’s John Kasich, Iowa’s Terry Branstad and New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage: all winners. In Connecticut, the race between Democrat Dannel Malloy and Republican Tom Foley was too close to project a winner — as was Colorado’s battle between Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper and Republican challenger Bob Beauprez.

What a night! The partying continues today!!!

Sparkles

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 10:59 am ·

Illinois didn’t elect Rauner because they liked him, he was elected because even Democrats gave up on Quinn.

President Barack Obama hoped the midterm elections would help break the capital’s gridlock. Instead, they became a referendum on his presidency.

Voters went to the polls Tuesday deeply frustrated with the political system and handed Republicans a decisive victory. Mr. Obama was a central figure in key races where Republicans criticized his leadership.

Most Democratic Senate candidates refused to appear with Mr. Obama on the campaign trail, trying to distance themselves from an unpopular president. Democrats tried to keep the focus on policies of particular importance in their states.

Compared with recent predecessors, Obama has faced historically large losses for his party in Congress over his time in office.

His first term began with Democrats in control of the House and Senate. In 2010, Democrats lost control of the House when 63 seats switched to the GOP, while six seats changed party in the Senate.

Under President Harry Truman, Democrats lost a combined 83 House seats in the 1946 and 1950 midterms.

On Tuesday night, Democrats lost at least seven more Senate seats and a dozen or so more House seats.

Chalk up another title to Obama’s legacy — the White House executive has now overseen the worst successive midterm elections losses in 64 years. Since Truman, no president’s overseen greater successive voting humiliations.

George W. Bush only lost a combined 22 House seats in the midterms, and Bill Clinton, a combined 49, Reagan only dropped a combined 31.

GoeB

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 8:12 pm ·

Great historical context on your part frames just how badly the party in power lost control.

Dems need to hear more of that as I see the knee jerk dissing already started. It happens every midterm and we will get over it, and on and on excuses.

Why would you want to “wreak destruction” on Democrats? A more laudable objective would be to do a much better job governing this country and the individual states. Neither party has excelled at those tasks for many years.

Me2Sense

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 8:21 pm ·

Wreak destruction on Democrats, why?

Because they have wreaked destruction on the U.S. for six straight years without going into detail.

They need to be taken down so the laudable goal of fixing their mess for the greater good can commence, post haste!

And quite possibly the only obstruction in their path come 2015 is the Obama veto pen.

Truth

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 2:01 pm ·

Only a pea-brained lemming takes glee in our dysfunctional government. This isn’t team sports idiot, America doesn’t win when politics are about obstructionism, we lose, ALEC & the Koch’s win.

Enjoy it while it lasts turd, you get the government you deserve. We shall see how productive they are, considering the most recent group was the LEAST productive in history, I’m expecting more uselessness from them.

Wait until the 2016 elections before claiming “victory,” Predrag and Fwhatever. And don’t wet your pants just yet. Just because the elected officials affiliate with a particular political party does not mean that they will do what you want. The Tea Party is a good example. Straight partisan voting is insane in my opinion. I vote for candidates, not party.

You guys are far too akin to the analysts that we revile on this forum. They predict this and predict that, are wrong the vast majority of the time while seldom acknowledging that fact, and trumpet any “success” as vindication for all of their past failures and a mandate for their belief system.

I have sad news for you guys…very little is likely to change over the next decade, and any change is likely to be in the direction of worse, not better.

Yesterday’s results required no prediction, they are a total and complete rejection of a total and complete failure of your president. If he perpetrates his current “treason de force” of amnesty for illegal aliens on the American people, he will be impeached and convicted. The rule of law, not men, will prevail.

There was no doubt that MDN was going to shoehorn the results of American elections into an article and somehow connect it to Apple. Especially when their guys won.

There are many of us foreigners here who don’t have such fascination with American political system. MDN, just take it easy on the politics and try focusing on Apple. I’m sure many Americans would appreciate it too. There’s plenty of news sites for politics. There’s only one MDN for best Apple news. Can we keep it that way?

It would be interesting to know the stats of user’s nationality, for no other reason than to determine how well ALL users interests are best represented. MDN’s reactionary roots are fun when applied to other competing technology companies and generate some gems in user’s posts – I remember creasing up when someone posted “MDN – 100% fuelled by Schadenfreude” ( or words to that effect – kudos to the originator), but political slants to MDN ‘Takes’ are now seen as an opportunity to hijack the thread with tedious and boring political slagging-off_the_opposition by hack soap box merchants intent on suppressing free speech.
‘So what?’ some will say…’MDN is an American site and they can do what they like.’ Well no, not really – not anymore. Their existence is now firmly rooted in the ad-based page click model, which has no nationality.
To be fair, it’s not just MDN, but it does seem to be an American only obsession that leaves this Brit somewhat bemused.

And yet Predrag you post your comments, then gripe… Did you ever imagine that “There are many of us here who don’t have such fascination” with what you have to say regarding American politics in your comments?

corporations have no loyalty but to themselves, their stockholders and their desire to make as much money as possible. (and for their leaders to pay themselves as well as possible)

they do that by filling, or creating and filling, a need. some do a better job of that than others, some by dint of quality of product and service (apple) others by hook and by crook (microsoft, google, samsung etc)

but to assume or believe that lowering tax rates will encourage a flow of capital back to america, is raather optimistic.

corporations do not want to pay taxes anywhere and will do anything they can to avoid paying them, including offshoring and buying onshore politicians to write all manner of loop holes into tax laws.

ya think thats ever going to stop ? not as long as politicians are looking for campaign money.

as long as our corporate leadership subscribes to the creed of short term gain in the pocket, rather than long term investment in america. nothing is going to change.

i am ashamed to say that it is my generation, the post war baby boomers who are the ones whose greed is driving this short sighted strategy.

Plainly rubbish. Every member of the G10 nations has a taxation policy for overseas earnings.
I chose to register my Apple shares abroad through an Isle of Man proxy company and have to pay tax on the dividends if I bring the money back to the UK…which, at present, I’m not doing.

The election last night may open the door to a repatriation of 2 trillion (2 million million) dollars of US corporate cash held overseas. That should be of interest to people beyond the great unwashed in the US, you so very very sophisticated European reader of the US site MDN.

That assumes a signature by Obama. Overriding a veto would take a Supermajority that they will not have.

The onus to pass bills will now be on Mitch McConnell, presuming he does not get dumped as the Republican leader in the Senate. Harry Reid will now get to play obstructionist in Chief and can hold bills for ransom as McConnell has the last 6 years.

That is not how I would choose it to be, but is how it will probably play out.

During the Congress from 2008-2010 when Democrats held the majority in both chambers, over 300 bills that passed the House were never voted on in the Senate due to the silent filibuster rule. Almost every one of these silent filibusters was from the Republican side of the aisle.

The GOP better get to work on simplifying the Corporate and Personal Tax Code, Smart Immigration Reform, reducing Wasteful Spending, Increase Personal Privacy Protection and Reduce Over-government regulation or they will be tossed out next time.

Personally I feel like big deal. We gone from people who say and do the wrong thing for business and the economy to people who say the right thing and still do the wrong thing. I see no real difference in results, only in rhetoric. When Republicans see candidates who might actually carry out economically conservative plans, they attack them as well.

And I thought it was pathologically hopeful when people expect a balanced budget, when there’s some rich companies pay their taxes out of a sense of responsibility (like Apple) and other rich companies using legal loopholes to get effective tax rates of 0% or less (like News Corp, Verizon, Seagate, Broadcom, General Motors, hmm… wonder if this missing tax revenue has anything to do with rising deficits?)

Now there’s hope Congressional Republicans will fix the tax system? Ha! They won’t dare do anything to benefit the American people in the next two years – they’re too afraid Obama will get credit for it.

Congressional Republicans are more likely to outlaw falafels than pass comprehensive tax reform. They are welcome to prove me wrong – but given their record breaking lethargy and apathy for the American people, I’m not holding my breadth.